ABC Buys Sander/Moses Circus Drama, Fox Goes For Medical Dramedy

EXCLUSIVE:ABC is going to the circus with Bazirkus, a soap from writer Mitch Kapner (Sam Raimi’s Oz: The Great and Powerful) and Sander/Moses (The Ghost Whisperer). Meanwhile, Fox continues to search for a new medical franchise with a script deal for a dramedy from Gossip Girl writer-producer Jessica Queller and Shawn Levy and Marty Adelstein’s 21 Laps/Adelstein Prods.

Bazirkus is based loosely on 32-year-old Nicole Feld of Ringling Bros & Barnum and Bailey Circus, who grew up in the circus her grandfather bought in 1967 and has become the first female producer in Ringling Bros’ history. The ABC project, which will be set at a fictional circus, is a family/workplace soap about unfulfilled dreams and great expectations in the circus world where everyone is pushing the limits, personally and professionally, to reinvent themselves as they reinvent their world. “This is drama that brings the circus into the 21st century, it will take us behind the curtain as well as center stage,” said Ian Sander and Kim Moses, who are executive producing with Kapner. ABC Studios, where UTA-repped Sander/Moses is under a deal, will produce. Kapner, who also penned The Whole Nine Yards, is with Gersh.

Jessica Queller’s Fox medical dramedy centers on a young neurologist who is a single mother of a sperm-donor baby. The show will chronicle (with humor) her struggle to balance work, motherhood, family and romance as she moves to Boston to start a new job that she hopes will help her find a cure for her ailing brother. 21 Laps/Adelstein is producing with 20th TV, where the company is based. Queller, Levy, Adelstein and Becky Clements are executive producing. WME-repped Queller’s TV credits also include Felicity, Gilmore Girls, Ed and One Tree Hill.